In the field of printing, it is well-known that continuous web printing presses are set up for high volume printing of such items as newspapers, business forms and event admission tickets. It is also well-known that there are various methods for facilitating the transmission of continuous web through the printing press to generate these documents. Further, it is well-known in the art of newspaper printing, that the makeready processes currently employed for the continuous web printing press involve trial and error adjustment to produce a properly printed, cut and folded newspaper page. For example, current makeready processes require that the print ink is turned on all of the printing units after the webs from the units have been led to the folder for the makeready for an edition of the newspaper. The printing presses are then run up to speed and a proof of the complete newspaper is generated on the leads from all of the printing units. The printing presses are then stopped and trial adjustments are made with the compensators to center the image on the web and another proof is taken. This process is repeated until all of the margins are compensated and the folder is not cutting into the image. The makeready is changed to accommodate the many page section and page color combinations required to produce a newspaper.
Many production problems result in current makeready processes. Presses may be started before the ink begins to run, the ink may dry out before completion of a run, overruns can occur and presses may malfunction. Problems also arise where, in correcting for a web break, a pressman mistakenly takes the web on a different lead other than the one that was compensated for (for example, over or under a different pipe roller). The primary consequence of such problems is that production is frequently interrupted. These consequences propagate, even after the problems are corrected, as production is resumed at a much slower pace. The common end result of such processes is that hundreds of pages of newspaper webbing, a significant quantity of newspaper ink, and many man-hours of labor are each wasted for each interrupted production run.
A major goal of newspaper printers is to reduce the unnecessary waste of raw materials and human resources associated with the newspaper printing process. A second goal of newspaper printers is to reduce the necessity for and manpower expended in making adjustments to the web and/or the printing presses when the web is either improperly positioned or interrupted. In view of these goals, it is thereby desirable to conserve valuable natural resources, reduce overhead and expenses, and streamline the time required to set-up or reset continuous web printing press operations by employing a method for effectively and efficiently setting and regulating the accuracy of the position of the continuous web in the continuous web printing process using a pre-marked makeready tape.
Other devices have been produced to assist in performance of high volume, continuous web printing. Typical of the art are those devices disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
______________________________________ Pat. No. Inventor(s) Issue Date ______________________________________ 2,932,897 E. W. Huber Jun. 26, 1958 3,797,120 Z. P. Byne Mar. 19, 1974 4,177,730 L. Schriber, et al. Dec 11, 1974 4,351,113 C. C. Eggersten, et al. Sep. 28, 1982 4,412,490 H. K. Grosshauser Nov 01, 1983 4,569,285 M. Forno, et al. Feb 11, 1986 4,716,799 D. Hartmann Jan 01, 1988 4,905,598 H. Thomas Mar 06, 1990 GB1226055 G. E. S. Ciancimino Mar. 24, 1971 ______________________________________
The method and apparatus for web printing disclosed by Schriber, et al., in the '730 patent is a total registration system for many different and optionally used mechanisms of the business form press. The makeready adjustments of this system are set using adjustable mechanisms and indicators which relate the setting of the indicators to a zero position before the web is threaded through all of the stations. This particular system also requires completion of a composition and a calculation scheme prior to actual operation of the press. It is also unidirectional and requires the expense of several runs of web prior to the final setting of the press. This particular device lacks the flexibility of functioning without such adjustment indicators or composition and calculation schemes. Similarly, it lacks facility in setting and regulating the print to cut distance of webbing on the continuous web printing press.
The '490 patent issued to Grosshauser discloses a paper web guiding mechanism designed to provide a moveable paper web guide frame. This device is also designed to lend greater support to a press operator needing to access areas within the printing unit without the necessity of severing the paper web. As such, this particular printing press mechanism does not relate to the method of setting and regulating the accuracy of the position of webbing on the continuous web printing process that is the subject of the present invention.
The '285 patent issued to Fomo, et al., discloses a device for controllably shifting a compensator roller in a printing press to feed a web by means of a variable speed actuator. The focus of this device is compensator movement and manipulation. Given this focus on a printing press component, and its operation, this particular device bears no relation to the method of setting and regulating the accuracy of the position of webbing on the continuous web printing process.
The '799 patent issued to Hartmann discloses a machine and a method for automatic ticket dispensing whereby the machine automatically adjusts itself to the size of the ticket being dispensed. The device utilizes optic sensors, a controller and a cutter to detect, monitor and tailor ticket dimensions based on the distance between pre-determined perforation points. The requirement of optic sensors or electrically governed controller components and the use of preperforated printing media are functional limitations that restrict the use and adaptability of this device.
The '598 patent issued to Thomas et al. discloses a machine for processing continuous web sheets having bearings and casings for adjusting the nip between cylinders of a machine. The bearing arrangements of this machine are within auxiliary casings supported by the machine frame. This arrangement of the bearings and casings also allows for control of the flexure of the cylinders. Like the '285 patent issued to Forno, et al., this device relates to particular printing press components, and their operation, rather than the operation of the press in its entirety.
Finally, the '897 patent issued to Huber, the '120 patent to issued Byrne, the '113 patent issued to Eggersten, and the '055 patent issued to Ciancimino disclose tape devices which are distinguishable from the present invention. Huber discloses an expandable measuring tape which is selectively pre-weakened such that a series of slits are created in the tape and pre-determined sections of the tape surface are removable. Byne similarly discloses a sewing tape having a series of "elongated weakening cuts" to enable the separation of the tape into ribbons of predetermined thickness and provide for accurate top-stitching. Eggersten discloses a pressure sensitive, expandable, adhesively-backed measuring tape composed of rubber-matted crepe paper for measuring. And, Ciancimino discloses a "flexible graduated tape" having a centrally disposed metal stripping to preclude elongation for measuring in either English or metric units. None of these devices is designed or easily adapt to coordinate and adjust the orientation of two spaced points on a web printing press. None of these devices includes an adhesive surface which may be applied solely at the points of contact between the tape and the web surface, as opposed to their entire lengths. Nor are any of these devices composed of materials suitable for use in the web printing process.
Neither the Eggersten nor the Ciancimino tapes are applicable to either feeding webbing through a printing press as removal of the backing strips from either or both of these tapes is impractical, regardless of whether the removal of the backing strips occurs before or after such a tape is fed through a printing press. Moreover, even if feasibly removed and positioned in the press as described above, once exposed, the backing side of either the Eggersten or the Ciancimino tapes would immediately attach themselves to that part of the printing press against which they lay and tear apart when the press is set into motion. The end result is not only a defeat of the objective of compensating the web, but severe damage to the press and its parts caused by the accumulation of these tapes in those press parts. The tape devices of the Huber and Byne patents fail for identical reasons.
The indicia disposed on each of the referenced tapes does little more than confuse a pressman's task of centering printed media on a web page as they fail to facilitate the measurement of the appropriate length of webbing. The use of such tapes, consequently, would also extend the time required for a pressman to make an accurate determination of proper web page position. Greater manufacture and sale costs, due to the inclusion of minute measurements and the use of pressure sensitive adhesives, are a further consequence of the production of the referenced tapes. Moreover, the use of the referenced tapes would do little more than increase the waste resulting from their use in the web feeding and compensating process as the tapes themselves would constitute additional waste.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a pre-marked makeready tape for accurately setting and regulating webbing in the makeready and printing processes of a continuous web printing press.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a makeready tape having an adhesive surface which is selectively activatable, but not activated, such that each end of the makeready tape of any length of the tape is selectively adherable to the webbing and adherence problems of non-activated portions of the adhesive surface are obviated.
It is another object of this invention to provide a novel method for reducing web set-up waste by use of a makeready tape that is pre-marked marked at whole number page increments for page lengths of webbing as are commonly used in newspaper printing processes.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pre-marked makeready tape whose use obviates the need to turn on the ink wells and use the ink for trial compensating runs, as well as the use of webbing during those compensating runs.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a pre-marked makeready tape which enables the accurate setting of the press compensator for any press run, regardless of page or printing press length.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a pre-marked makeready tape which enables rapid and accurate adjustment of the printing press from one size of webbing page cut to another.
Additionally, it is an object of this invention to provide a pre-marked makeready tape for adjusting the web on the continuous web printing press at any time during the print process, regardless of cause, without the necessity of resetting the entire press.
Moreover, it is an object of this invention is to provide a pre-marked makeready tape which enables efficient and effective continuous web newspaper printing with a minimal expense of manpower and/or natural resources.